Kurtenbach: The Warriors aren't really trying -- but you can hardly blame them

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OAKLAND — Draymond Green was stunned.

Sitting at the dais following the Warriors' 117-112 win over the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night, Green uttered a few unprintable words under his breath when he finally noticed the big, giant, out-of-place number on the postgame stat sheet.

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Incredulously, he asked: Poeltl had 11 offensive rebounds?

Yes, Toronto's backup center did.

And he would have pulled down more, had Green not decided to up his defensive intensity for the final two-or-so minutes of Wednesday's entertaining contest.

Golden State ended Wednesday's game on a 10-0 run, sparked by spectacular offensive play from Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, as well as lock-down defense (with a little bit of help from a constipated Raptors' attack) by Green and Klay Thompson.

The end-of-game spurt was the Warriors at their best, but the first 46 minutes of Wednesday's game wasn't anything to celebrate — there were a few enticing bursts of play here and there, sure, but ultimately it was a disjointed, disorganized, and frankly disinterested effort by the Warriors.

Still, it was a win.

I imagine we're going to see plenty of games like Wednesday's this Warriors season — games where the Warriors are anything but inspiring but are nonetheless victorious.

So far this season, Golden State is yet to put together a 48-minute game where they look good on both ends of the court, but outside of pride, what's their incentive to go all-out for a full game? This Warriors roster is so talented, they can win with mediocre all-around performances on a near nightly basis.

Offensively, the Warriors are fine so far this season. The Golden State offense doesn't seem to be fully operational, but the talent on the court at any given moment is so lopsided that it hasn't mattered — the Warriors are going to put roughly 120 points on the board every single night.

The issue for Golden State — the reason they're 3-2 on the season and could easily be 2-3 with a 0-2 home record — is the defense.

Our defense has been horrible, Green said. Nobody's communicating.

If only communication was the totality of Warriors' defensive problems — it's easy enough to start talking, after all.

No, it's an issue of effort, which might be tied to an overarching issue of incentive (or lack thereof).

In the first four games of the season, the Warriors found themselves in foul trouble, averaging 25 infractions per game — one of the worst marks in the league.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr was blunt in his assessment as to why the Warriors were fouling so much: It wasn't the team's lack of conditioning, it wasn't anything opposing teams were doing tactically, it was something bigger than that:

We have a number of issues we’re concerned about, but that’s No. 1, Kerr said of fouling. More than anything, it’s just a sign of discipline — when you keep reaching and keep reaching, mindlessly, you’re obviously not going to execute very well at the other end, because your head is not in it.

On Wednesday, despite a rough start, the Warriors curtailed some of those foul problems — they found some discipline. The Warriors had five fouls in the first quarter but ended the game with 15.

But then two other problems, both tied to discipline (or a lack of discipline) showed up: the Warriors were careless with the ball on offense (not exactly a new problem) and weren't boxing out on defense (that one was new). Toronto, without their top center, Jonas Valanciunas, in the lineup, had 17 more shot attempts than the Warriors Wednesday — coincidentally, that was the number of offensive rebounds the Raptors had in the game.

My dad used to tell me a story — it was a joke, Kerr said. He said a boy comes home from school with a bad report card and his father says 'Son, is this ignorance or apathy?' The kid says 'I don't know, and I don't care, Dad.' So either we don't know or we don't care how to box out, so we're going to have to figure out which one it is.

The statement was rhetorical, but there is a correct answer, and Kerr knows it: The Warriors know how to box out — just as they know how to play good defense and not turn the ball over. Right now, they just don't care.

And don't expect them to start caring — in earnest, for a full 48 minutes — anytime soon.

Because other than professional pride, what's the Warriors' incentive to up their game? They're yet to put anything close to a complete game together this season — they're yet to have a good report card — and yet they're 3-2.

The Warriors are good enough to beat 80 percent of the teams in the NBA with a C-grade effort — like Dallas, who lost to the Warriors by 30 on Monday despite the Warriors turning the ball over 16 times, committing 23 fouls, and generally playing lax defense.

Toronto isn't one of those teams who can be beaten with pedestrian, one-sided efforts, but the Warriors only had to put the pedal to the floor in the final 130 seconds to beat them.

When do the Warriors actually have to bring their A-game to the arena this regular season? A few matchups against Houston or Cleveland? Maybe.

And if the Warriors don't put together strong performances against the best of the best in the regular season this year, what will happen?

Nothing — other than unnecessary mass-media handwringing and bloviating, of course.

This Warriors team knows that it has what it takes to defend its title. They don't need to expend energy in October — pre-Halloween — in a quest for… what, exactly?

The No. 1 seed in the West? Respect from the rest of the league?

The Warriors already have the latter and do you really believe they'll have stiff competition for the former?

Until the calendar flips to April, the Warriors don't have to worry about playing their best basketball. So unless professional pride kicks in (and don't underestimate it, especially on a team with Green), expect more of what we've seen from the Warriors at the start of this season — half-effort games, and full-credit wins.